So I guess introductions are in order...

My name is Courtney.  I live in Wilmington NC, which is the most wonderful place in the world if you ask me!  I am married with children :)  I live with a wonderful husband and my two beautiful daughters.  While I consider myself to be technically very smart this is my first go at blogging....so bear with me while I get the hang of this!

So now you know who I am, I'll move on to my incredibly large brain...and the reason for this blog.

I'm not exactly sure if I have an incredibly large brain or an incredibly small skull...either way something just doesn't quite fit the way it should.   I have Chiari Malformation and Basilar Invagination with a side order of Platybasia.   If you would have told me I would be able to spell any of these a year ago without spell check (which doesn't know what they are anyway) I would have laughed.   But, I can not only spell them I can tell you in depth what each of them are and name all the brain parts that are affected by these.  I can also tell you how much your life changes when someone says you have these.   My life changed dramatically even though I have had these since birth.   I can't honestly tell you it changed for the better...and I would probably pay a large sum of money if I could go back and never know.   But I can't.   It's kind of a downer and I apologize....just keeping it real :)

So, Feb 10th 2011 my life officially changed to that of a girl with some weird headaches and a bunch of little symptoms but otherwise healthy 34 year old to a girl with major medical conditions that no one (here) knew anything about.  I guess I'll start my journey in my next posts just so I can get this one posted...

....because quite honestly I am impatient and want to see what this whole blog thing will look like once I hit this publish button.